Chemical production on a commercial scale is key to many industries. Many of these processes make the production of an otherwise rare product (or even non-existent in nature) less expensive, thus making it available for public use and consumption. Production of a specific chemical product may involve more than one type of process.
While chemical production processes are currently available for meeting many of the world's needs today, these processes tend to be energy intensive. That is, these processes often require large amounts of energy to produce products, increasing the cost of production as carbon-based energy continues to increase in cost. In addition, many chemical production processes produce, in addition to the desired end-product, by-products which can be toxic, hazardous, or require special handling.